How Does Your Garden Grow? - Happy composting

How Does Your

Garden Grow?

Happy composting week!

That’s right, it’s composting week from May 4-10 and I’ve gathered you all here to commemorate it with me.

Right now we’re celebrating the fact that I think I’ve gotten the gnats mostly under control. They haven’t gone away completely, but I’m no longer worried about accidentally swallowing one while I yap with my work wife, Lydia, at the front desk.

Putting more shredded newspaper in the compost bin helped significantly, as well as burying the food scraps on the bottom of the bin and putting a solid layer of shredded newspaper over the top before closing the lid. I did drag it outside this week but only because I’m running low on space in our little storage area.

A couple of weeks ago I attempted to lure the gnats to their demise with an ice cream pail containing a banana peel and covered with plastic dotted with little holes. I thought it was working, but I was wrong. All I did was watch a banana slowly rot for two weeks.

It’s safe to say that the best remedy for gnats has been to cleanse the drains with warm water and bleach, water the office plants with a mixture of peroxide and water, and keep the compost bin under control. Those little sticky traps you can put in with your plants help too.

Cathy Miller-Temme told me that I could get a decent ceramic pot with a deodorizer for composting at home which could run me $30.

“I use a five quart ice cream bucket which cost nothing,” Cathy told me.

If it’s good enough for Cathy, it’s good enough for me. She also told me that the fruit flies will go after banana peels when the weather warms up. But what if I store the pail in the fridge in between runs to the compost pile? Yes, my family will bury it way in the back and ask me six times a day, “What’s in this container?” But honestly it’s a small price to pay if I can avoid the gnats.

In other exciting news, I’m taking a mushroom foraging class with my sister this Friday and Saturday. When I read in the paper that NTC was offering the course we jumped on it. Did we unnecessarily book a hotel so that we can enjoy a kid-free night in between classes? Perhaps. But I think you’re allowed to do things like that around Mother’s Day.

Regardless, we’re very excited to learn more about hunting for mushrooms! I promise to pay attention and report back to you.

I finally put my carrots in the dirt on Friday. I was able to buy about 16 bags of Hsu Garden Blend soil at Fourmen’s as well as a bale of compressed straw from Tractor Supply. I filled the bottom of some buckets with the tops of my recycled bottles and a layer of straw before adding the soil. I then planted my carrot seeds 1/2” deep and gave them a little drink.

I transplanted my lettuce as well, and only three days after I originally planned to. We are going to have iceberg coming out of our ears here at the office, but since I managed to make the seeds sprout we’re going to get them all in the dirt if it kills me.

And I also got the radishes in the soil. I royally messed up by not planting them directly into the containers so who knows if they’ll even take off. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I don’t have anything else going into the ground until the first week of June. At that time we’ll be transplanting our tomatoes and peppers, and getting our beans planted. In between now and then I need to get some blueberry and strawberry plants going, and possibly plant some potatoes. I saw on social media that they can be grown in old laundry baskets with straw, which I happen to have an abundance of, and soil. It sounds easy enough and I’m happy to test it out so you don’t have to. If I can do it, the odds are that you can do it exactly six and a half times better.

Remember last week when I said I didn’t have enough buckets because I underestimated how many I’d need?

Yeah. It’s worse than I thought. My husband, Mike, and I had about 20 food grade buckets from Gilman Cheese tucked in our garage, but I got so low so fast at the office that I made the poor guy load them up for me so I could bring them to work. He is now tasked with getting more for the office and replenishing my home stash. Godspeed, husband.

I mentioned last week that I impulsively purchased guinea fowl, but just hear me out. I live in a very wooded area and we are preyed upon by ticks incessantly, and these little dinosaurs will eat thousands of ticks a day. I also haven’t seen them for sale around much, so when we were browsing at Tractor Supply and I saw them I grabbed four. They’re adorable, but way more wild than my leghorn chicks who are also getting massive.

Mike and I spent the weekend getting the ladies’ little coop ready for the backyard. We have a few more things to do before they can move into their new home, like run some wire in the backyard and get netting up over the fence to keep the predatory birds out. My goats are not at all thrilled about the construction zone in their yard and have been very vocal about their displeasure. I almost feel bad.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing women out there. I hope you spend the day poolside with a cocktail in your hand while your spouse and children feed you fresh fruit and fan you with palm fronds. You deserve it.

Mandee Ellis is a reporter at The Star News. Contact her at Mandee@centralwinews.com.

I planted carrots last week and started by adding some recyclables to the bottom of each pail followed by some straw and a solid layer of good soil.